(AP/China Daily)
Updated: 2005-11-16 06:30

Two of the countries hardest hit by bird flu announced extreme measures to fight the disease Tuesday, with China promising to vaccinate its entire poultry stock of 14 billion birds and Vietnam launching a campaign to purge its two largest cities of poultry.

Jia Youling, chief veterinary officer in China's Agriculture Ministry, said China is in the process of vaccinating all poultry in the country. He said the government will pay all fees involved, but he did not provide any details of how officials would carry out the vaccinations.

A scientific research worker displays the human vaccines for bird flu in Beijing, China, on Monday November 14, 2005. [Xinhua]

It was unclear if the birds were being vaccinated against the virulent H5N1 bird flu strain that has ravaged poultry stocks across Asia and killed at least 64 people since 2003.

China has more than 14 billion farm poultry, accounting for nearly 21 percent of the world's total. Millions of birds have already been vaccinated in the country because of previous outbreaks.

The announcement came as China confirmed two new outbreaks of the bird flu. More than 6,500 chickens were found infected in Urumqi and Zepu counties in the northwest Xinjiang region on Nov. 9, and more than 2,700 died, said Roy Wadia, a World Health Organization spokesman in Beijing, citing the Agriculture Ministry.

While China has not reported a human case of the disease, experts warn that it is inevitable if the government cannot stop repeated outbreaks in poultry. Eleven poultry outbreaks have been reported in the country in the past month.

China "still faces some problems in bird flu prevention and control system, especially at the grassroots level," Jia said, according to the Xinhua News Agency. "China has a lot of backyard-bred poultry. Some farmers pay no attention to the disease."

Scientists in Beijing are trying to determine whether a girl who died in Central China's Hunan Province after developing high fever is the country's first human case of bird flu.

The results of the investigation, which is almost complete, will be made public this week, said an expert who did not want to be identified.

The 12-year-old girl is one of the three suspected human cases in Hunan. She died on October 17 but two others, her brother and a 37-year-old teacher, have recovered after having similar symptoms.

China is yet to report a confirmed human case but if it does, "it's not something that's earth-shattering in the grand scheme of things because there are human cases elsewhere," Roy Wadia, the World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman in Beijing, was quoted by Xinhua as saying.

"It would not be a surprising development. It just means surveillance systems are better now," he said.

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